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@chrisemdin

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by TeachThought Staff
Ed note: This post is promoted by SEU'S online masters in education programs. SEU simply asked us to write about how learning is changing and the updated kinds of things teachers need to know, and to let you know about their program. So here we are.
As teachers, when we lecture, we have the best of intentions. We have a concept we want the class to understand, so we stand and explain it to them. We give them background. Offer details. Anticipate and pre-empt common misconceptions. Illuminate the more entertaining bits. Emphasize the nuance.

So explaining things isn't "bad," so how about beginning with some clarification. Talking is not lecturing-it's talking. Talking with students and expecting them to respond meaningfully isn't lecture-that's accountable talk, which itself is close to a Socratic dialogue or Paideia seminar. Explaining an idea verbally, especially if being done to clarify a context or history of circumstance-can be a powerful tool if used expertly.

Everyone loves a story, and unless you're awful, your students probably like you and want to hear from you. But you can't "give knowledge." Or "verbally annotate" discovery and inquiry. Clearly this thinking comes from a place of constructivism, so it's slanted that way. Lecture likely has a place in education. In the background knowledge-building phase of learning, for example.

Or in a "flipped classroom" setting where the "lecture" is designed to be consumed at the student's own pace (using viewing strategies, for example).

Or when students have mastered a core set of understandings, and are ready-in unison-to hear something from an honest-to-goodness expert who only has an hour to unload what he/she knows. In these cases, when...

All students are similarly motivated

All students have mastered certain "listening strategies"

All students have strong note-taking skills, and can adapt those strategies for a variety of content, delivery speed, and so on

All students have a similar background knowledge

...then lecture can be moderately effective, but even then it depends on what we mean by "effective." (Prince 2004)
The List of Alternatives To Lecture
So then, the list. This is an interesting post to write, because a large part of our content is to provide alternatives to lecture. In that way, our site at large could be seen as a compilation of alternatives to lecturing. But for those educators that'd like to see a kind of index all gathered in one place, with certain links to more in-depth analyses elsewhere, this post might help scratch that itch. This is a long list. The idea is to see a lot of awesome possibilities in one place, not write a book.

A few notes:

1. This is a mix of learning models and literacy strategies that can be used to accomplish what we hope a lecture might-"give information" and "promote understanding." Not every one is a perfect replacement for what a "good lecture" is, but most, in spirit and function, are close.

2. Some of the ideas don't have links-we'll try to go back and add them. Suggest some in the comments if you know of a good one. We may go back and add brief definitions links to great content that then clarifies and extends these items with thinking, frameworks, strategies, and tools, because some are admittedly confusing in name-only. We were going to include several videos and frameworks, but that makes the post clumsy and slow-loading on smaller mobile devices. If you get curious and/opr confused and we still haven't clarified something you'd like to know, either ask in the comments, or try keyword searching on your own.

3. If you look at this list as a whole, it's clear education is either changing, or has a slew of tools it's ignoring in not changing.
50 Alternatives To Lecturing Learning Models
1. Self-directed learning

2. Learning through play

3. Scenario-based learning

4. Game-based learning

5. Project-based learning

6. Peer-to-Peer instruction

7. School-to-school instruction (using Skype in the classroom, for example)

8. Learning through projects

9. Problem-based learning

10. Challenge-based learning

11. Inquiry-based learning

12. Mobile learning

13. Gamified learning (gamification)

14. Cross-curricular projects

15. Reciprocal Teaching

16. "Flipped-class" learning

17. Face-to-Face Driver blended learning

18. Rotation blended learning

19. Flex Blended Learning

20. "Online Lab" blended learning

21. Sync Teaching

23. HyFlex Learning

24. Self-guided MOOC

25. Traditional MOOC

26. Competency-Based Learning

27. Question-based learning
Literacy Strategies
28. Write-Around

29. Four Corners

30. Accountable Talk

31. RAFT Assignments

32. Fishbowl

33. Debate

34. Gallery Walk

35. Text Reduction

36. Concentric Circles

37. Traditional Concept-Mapping (teacher-given strategy- "fishbone" cause-effect analysis, for example)

38. Didactic, Personalized Concept Mapping (student designed and personalized for their knowledge-level and thinking patterns)

39. Mock Trial

40. Non-academic video + "academic" questioning

41. Paideia Seminar

42. Symposium

43. Socratic Seminar

44. QFT Strategy

45. Concept Attainment

46. Directed Reading Thinking Activity

47. Paragraph Shrinking

48. FRAME Routine

49. Jigsaw Strategy
Other
50. Content-Based Team-Building Activities

51. Learning Simulations

52. Role-Playing

53. Bloom's Spiral

54. Virtual Field Trip

55. Physical Field Trip

56. Digital Scavenger Hunt

57. Physical Scavenger Hunt

58. What? So What? What Now? ( See also here.)
50 Alternatives To Lecturing; adapted image attribution flickeringbrad
Experienced Teacher Our Best

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by TeachThought Staff Ed note: This post is promoted by SEU'S online masters in education programs. SEU simply asked us to write about how learning is changing and the updated kinds of things teachers need to know, and to let you know about their program. So here we are.

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@dintersmith

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@TeachThoughtPD

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https://teddintersmith.com/mltsfilm/

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Most Likely To Succeed is a thought-provoking documentary feature film that reveals the growing shortcomings of conventional education methods in today's innovative world. The film explores compelling new approaches that aim to revolutionize education as we know it, inspiring school communities to reimagine what students and teachers are capable of doing. To date, MLTS has screened for thousands of audiences around the world, igniting conversations and empowering change along the way. Share the film with your community to activate change now.

From Director Greg Whiteley (Last Chance U, Mitt,) and Executive Producer Ted Dintersmith (author, Most Likely to Succeed).

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Most Likely To Succeed - Ted Dintersmith

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Most Likely To Succeed is a thought-provoking documentary feature film that reveals the growing shortcomings of conventional education methods in today's innovative world. The film explores compelling new approaches that aim to revolutionize education as we know it, inspiring school communities to reimagine what students and teachers are capable of doing.

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@Monica Burns

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Online learnings
simplek12.com

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@CultOfPedagogy

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@cueinc

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain

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Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

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Home - Culturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain

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For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'All, Too

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For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'All, Too

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"The most important work of pedagogy I've read in ten years...Dr. Emdin's humane, and more importantly, effective practices, filled me with great hope and excitement to keep engaging with the community in which I teach."
-John Warner, Inside Higher Ed

"Teaches the unlearned lesson that a hip-hop people's critical perspective must matter in order for authentic teaching and learning to take place, but more importantly the book offers a bigger case for colleges to make room for other hip-hop scholars."
-Dr. Andre Perry, The Hechinger Report

"Dr. Chris Emdin...inspired me to become fearless while teaching for social justice."
-Bryan Mooney, contributor PBS NewsHour's Education Lounge

"As the cries to recognize the relevance of Black lives in this country grow louder...Emdin's advice about how to more effectively serve students (people) of color is a reminder that recognizing their humanity is a critical first step."
- Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

"A brilliant, blistering, and bracing call to arms for those who teach and learn in urban America....Emdin reminds us that the children and young people who throng our urban schools are worthy of every attempt to sharpen their minds and prepare them for a satisfying life far beyond the classroom. If you're looking for the revolutionary meaning, and imaginative transformation, of teaching for the real America, you're holding it in your hands! Christopher Emdin is Jonathan Kozol with swag!"
-Michael Eric Dyson, author of The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

"Essential reading for all adults who work with black and brown young people...Filled with exceptional intellectual sophistication and necessary wisdom for the future of education."
-Imani Perry, author of Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip-Hop

"A compelling and accessible road map for anyone (not just white folks!) teaching twenty-first-century urban youth. It also confirms Emdin's reputation as one of the most important education scholars of our generation."
-Marc Lamont Hill, author of Beats, Rhymes, and Classroom Life and Distinguished Professor of Africana Studies at Morehouse College

"This volume is a powerful dance of teaching and art. It engages both the art and science of what teachers must do to be successful with all students. It is simultaneously lyrical and analytic, scientific and humanistic, a work of the heart and the mind. It belongs in every teacher's library!"
-Gloria Ladson-Billings, the Kellner Family Distinguished Chair in Urban Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison

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For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood... and the Rest of Y'all Too by Christopher Emdin: 9780807028025 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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"The most important work of pedagogy I've read in ten years...Dr. Emdin's humane, and more importantly, effective practices, filled me with great hope and excitement to keep engaging with the community in which I teach."-John Warner, Inside Higher Ed "Teaches the unlearned lesson that a hip-hop people's critical perspective must

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I promise. This book is largely about race. It's also a great way to examine your own biases, prejudices, actions, and inactions. It will also hopefully make you reflect on your educational practices.

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"What do you do after you have written Stamped From the Beginning, an award-winning history of racist ideas? . . . If you're Ibram X. Kendi, you craft another stunner of a book. . . . What emerges from these insights is the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind, a confessional of self-examination that may, in fact, be our best chance to free ourselves from our national nightmare." -The New York Times

" How to Be an Antiracist couldn't come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author's own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . . How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, 'the basic struggle we're all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.'""Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is-and what we should do about it."

"Ibram Kendi is today's visionary in the enduring struggle for racial justice. In this personal and revelatory new work, he yet again holds up a transformative lens, challenging both mainstream and antiracist orthodoxy. He illuminates the foundations of racism in revolutionary new ways, and I am consistently challenged and inspired by his analysis. How to Be an Antiracist offers us a necessary and critical way forward." -Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

"Ibram Kendi's work, through both his books and the Antiracist Research and Policy Center, is vital in today's sociopolitical climate. As a society, we need to start treating antiracism as action, not emotion-and Kendi is helping us do that." -Ijeoma Oluo, author of So You Want to Talk About Race

"Ibram Kendi uses his own life journey to show us why becoming an antiracist is as essential as it is difficult. Equal parts memoir, history, and social commentary, this book is honest, brave, and most of all liberating." -James Forman, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Locking Up Our Own

"A boldly articulated, historically informed explanation of what exactly racist ideas and thinking are . . . [Kendi's] prose is thoughtful, sincere, and polished. This powerful book will spark many conversations." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A combination of memoir and extension of [Kendi's] towering Stamped from the Beginning . . . Never wavering . . . Kendi methodically examines racism through numerous lenses: power, biology, ethnicity, body, culture, and so forth. . . . This unsparing honesty helps readers, both white and people of color, navigate this difficult intellectual territory. . . . Essential." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"In this sharp blend of social commentary and memoir . . . Kendi is ready to spread his message, his stories serving as a springboard for potent explorations of race, gender, colorism, and more. . . . With Stamped From the Beginning, Kendi proved himself a first-rate historian. Here, his willingness to turn the lens on himself marks him as a courageous activist, leading the way to a more equitable society." -Library Journal (starred review)

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How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi: 9780525509301 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a "groundbreaking" (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting...

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In 2014, the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City, Tamir Rice in Cleveland and too many others caused waves of nationwide protest and appeals for stronger protections against police brutality...

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Teaching Tolerance | Diversity, Equity And Justice

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators-teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners-who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Inside Bill's Brain review: a Netflix docu-series that keeps ...https://www.theverge.com › inside-bills-brain-decoding-bill-gates-movie-r...Sep 18, 2019 - The three-part Netflix documentary Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, tries to explain the Microsoft magnate. But director Davis .

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Inside Bill's Brain review: a Netflix docu-series that keeps ...https://www.theverge.com › inside-bills-brain-decoding-bill-gates-movie-r...Sep 18, 2019 - The three-part Netflix documentary Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates, tries to explain the Microsoft magnate. But director Davis .

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This series shows remarkable insight into a person who thinks in innovative ways, but was never successful in traditional school setting.

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@pernilleripp

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@TeachingChannel

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Teaching Channel. 132K likes. Teaching Channel is a thriving online community where educators can watch, share, and learn diverse techniques to help every student grow.

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https://www.peaklearningsystems.com/

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Online K12 Social Emotional Learning Program | EVERFI

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Our free social emotional learning program equips educators with online SEL curriculum and activities to nurture social skills in your classroom.

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Explore...

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Just a few minutes a day can reduce your stress and help you sleep better.

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‎Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers on Apple Podcasts

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‎Truth for Teachers is designed to speak life, encouragement, and truth into the minds and hearts of educators and get you energized for the week ahead.

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1:09:55 Guest(s): Amanda Morin, Emily Kircher-Morris

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The Cult of Pedagogy Podcast | Cult of Pedagogy

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Teaching strategies, classroom management, education reform, educational technology -- if it has something to do with teaching, we’re talking about it.

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@jmattmiller

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This is the fourth and final entry of four blog posts about facilitating healthy grading conversations in schools. The first three posts (read posts one, two, and three here) outline a tremendous amount of work that may span a few years' worth of preparation before implementing changes in grading practices.
It's a common mistake to assume that implementation simply involves pulling the lever while saying "ready, set, go!" Even after a solid foundation of establishing coherence, clarity, and readiness has been built, much care and attention must be given to the implementation phase. The Guiding Coalition is active through the entire implementation phase. Members of the team help to facilitate conversations and consensus processes. They also engage in enacting staff decisions and monitoring the effectiveness of their efforts. The implementation phase offers the formal launch to a public process that is rife with opportunities for things to go askance. During the implementation phase, the Guiding Coalition is still actively pursuing evidence of effectiveness and troubleshooting concerns along the way.
Read more

Tags: change, consensus, conversations, grading, Guiding Coalition, implementation, practices, team

This is the third of four blog posts about facilitating healthy grading conversations in schools (read posts one and two here). The series is intended to help educators navigate the challenging and sometimes turbulent waters of changing any traditional practice-but especially grading practices-where tradition, the court of public opinion, and the potential for failure at the expense of students' future opportunities hurl immediate deterrents in the way.
Initiating changes in grading practices requires action research-there's really no way around that. Read more

Tags: action research, changes, formative assessment, grading practices, informed, opportunities, policies, process, proficiency-based, standards-based grading, students, teams, traditional

Note: This is the second of four blog posts about facilitating healthy grading conversations in schools. The series is intended to help educators navigate the challenging and sometimes turbulent waters of changing any conventional practice-especially grading practices-where tradition, the court of public opinion, and the potential for failure at the expense of students' future opportunities hurl immediate deterrents in the path.
Pulling the trigger (e.g. creating and announcing policy changes) before there is systemwide understanding and preliminary agreements will backfire. Schools that do usually end up on the evening news or the front page of the local paper. Generally, this results in abandoning the initiative completely, and thwarting future conversations from ever happening again. The grading "blowout" seems to leave deep and wide scars across the system.
Read more

Tags: changes, critical conversations, efforts, grading conversations, invite, leaders, practices, public opinion, share, stakeholders, tradition

Note: This entry is the first in a four-part series by Cassandra Erkens.
School improvement conversations fail when everyone walks away frustrated, the public angrily engages, and all change efforts within the initiative are abandoned. Sadly, many grading conversations fall into that failing category. In fact, the mere worry that things might go badly prohibits some very smart educational leaders from ever launching the grading conversation.

Conversations about grading can prove challenging. They are fraught with ingrained expectations, past practices, emotions, and opinions. But just because they're hard conversations, doesn't mean they should be avoided. Sometimes, those are the most important conversations to have. Indeed, generating clarity and consistency in policy and practice across a school building or district-especially on something as significant as grading-is crucial work.
Read more

Tags: feedback and grading, grading, grading collaboration

When it comes to measurement, four is a popular number; rather, a range of 1 to 4 is a common scheme. Two different powerful measurement systems use a range of 1 through 4 scores to clarify levels of quality. The Depth of Knowledge [DOK] framework by Webb, 2005, uses a 1 through 4 scale to rank the cognitive complexity of an assessment task. The Proficiency Scale framework by Marzano and Kendall (2008) uses a 1 through 4 scale to rank students' performance levels on individual standards. Read more

Tags: depth of knowledge, DOK, Marzano, proficiency scales

Author's note: In the spring of last school year, I offered 2 posts from a 4 part series on using assessments to increase achievement. The first was in regards to defining 'learning' beyond numerical indicators and the second was on holding high expectations for all learners. The third and fourth posts will be offered this fall.

Read more

Tags: increasing rigor, real world problems, relevance, student relationships

Post 2 of 4 on Using Assessment to Improve Achievement

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them
Einstein

As noted in my first post of this series regarding using assessment to support achievement, the primary mission of schools is to help kids learn. Schools write mission statements toward that same end: all students will be successful. But, have those mission statements become routine and somewhat cliché? Read more

Post 1 of 4 on Using Assessment to Improve Achievement

A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new.
Einstein

The primary mission of schools is to help kids learn. That's it. That's the bottom line. It stands to reason, then, that the primary indicator of success will always be achievement scores. But our work with making decisions about learners must remain far more humane then making decisions about learners based on a set of cold, calculated scores (and it doesn't matter if those data come from the grades in our gradebooks or external test scores). The measure of achievement should never mask the face of the learner. This is personal. And, it's very serious work. Read more

When you come upon a seemingly insurmountable challenge, do you give up or do you persist? If you tackle such moments, then you have a strong sense of efficacy. Efficacy requires belief ( I can do this) and action ( I will take the risks, even though failure is a possibility). It is the foundation learners require if they are to develop deep understanding and personal skill. Read more

At its core, assessment has always been a process that was meant to support learning; in other words, teachers and learners would use the information from assessments to make decisions about what comes next. In order for teachers and especially learners to even fathom 'what's next' they must maintain a sense of hope. Read more

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This is the fourth and final entry of four blog posts about facilitating healthy grading conversations in schools. The first three posts (read posts one , two , and three here) outline a tremendous amount of work that may span a few years' worth of preparation before implementing changes in grading practices.

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@tiffanymjewell